1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to an information processing apparatus including a plurality of GPUs having different characteristics, and particularly, an information processing apparatus which is capable of changing GPUs based on a type of drawing processing in performing the drawing processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as high quality moving pictures are run or 3D games with complicated drawn 3D screens are run at information processing apparatuses such as personal computers (PCs), there have been proposed information processing apparatuses having two or more graphics processing units (GPUs) or a dual GPU for a purpose of improving drawing capability.
As one example, JP-A-2007-48269 discloses a drawing method giving flexibility to development of graphic chips. This drawing method is to draw data using two cooperating GPUs having different new and old architectures for the purpose of providing compatibility. More specifically, in this drawing method, a first GPU performs a drawing processing for data supplied from a second GPU via a data input/output interface and returns the drawn data to the second GPU via the data input/output interface. Then, the second GPU processing the data from the first GPU if necessary and outputs a digital video signal to the outside.
An information processing apparatus having a plurality of GPUs having the same level of function typically divides a picture into a plurality of regions to be assigned to the plurality of GPUs, respectively, and performs a drawing processing for the regions by causing corresponding GPUs to draw their respective regions. In the meantime, although various types of application programs run at information processing apparatuses have been developed, there is necessity of high speed drawing processing irrespective of the type of drawing processing in order to allow various types of drawing processing such as 3D operation, moving picture processing, etc.